


Skyscrapers Are Perfect Meeting Places

by cuddlyharkness



Category: Doctor Who, Torchwood
Genre: Fluffy Ending, M/M, Rain, Reunited and It Feels So Good, Tenth Doctor Era, Torchwood References, jack loves tall buildings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-24
Updated: 2015-03-24
Packaged: 2018-03-19 08:52:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3604002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cuddlyharkness/pseuds/cuddlyharkness
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Atop a skyscraper in the city of Cardiff, a man stands alone, thinking back. That is until he gets a visit from a man he thought he'd never see again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Skyscrapers Are Perfect Meeting Places

The night air was cool on his face, rain drizzling down from the gray clouds above and creating small patterns across his wool coat. Eyes as stormy as the sky above Cardiff looked out across the darkened city, lingering on the glittering water tower in the distance and the bay farther beyond. Lights were few and far between, the late night hours being those in which few were still awake, save for insomniacs and those who were either arriving home or leaving for work. 

He couldn't help but smile as he gazed out across the city. His city, he liked to think. Torchwood’s realm, the one place that he could always count on being there to save. It made him smile to think of all the people, bustling about their average lives, having no knowledge of the things that came through the Rift, of the things that he and his team always worked tirelessly to protect, night and day, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year. It made him smile to think that some people would be able to go about life blissfully unaware of the things that went beyond the space they knew, beyond the universe as they knew it. 

But it also brought with it a twinge of sadness. He himself would live to watch all of this beautiful, stormy town crumble and wither, generation after generation. He couldn't share the beauty of the universes with anyone, and if by chance they found out, they would always forget the next day. Torchwood was like that. It had to be. One day you’re saving the Earth, the next day your system is laced with Retcon to make you forget it all in one quick swoop. Although lonely, the life he led with his team was one that had to be dealt with one day at a time, yet minds always had to be turned to the future and delved deep within reason. 

He remembered when there was a time that he wanted to let people keep memories of Torchwood, and he had let some people keep their experiences. It always ended with him cleaning up the mess it caused though, so he had begun to slowly give up on the idea of anyone outside the system being able to keep it to themselves. He’d fought becoming jaded to the woes of others, and continued to do so to this day, even though he’d seen many people save the Earth and never even know it the next day.

Maybe some day the world would be ready for the reveal of Torchwood, for the reveal of all that went on in the vastness of space and within the Rift. But this was the wrong century for that. It may be when everything changes, but it wasn't the proper time nor place to let people know. Some day, though. Far beyond the rainy days Cardiff faced now, somewhere in the later years of this small boom-town, maybe then. 

“You come up here a lot, don’t you?” 

The voice almost startled him, nearly made him jump out of his skin and off the roof. He’d done that one too many times, and it always ended with him needing a massage.

“It’s quiet. I can think up here.” Behind him, a man in a poorly fitted suit and very long, brown trench-coat that was slick with rain watched him, stared through him almost, with the intensity every species felt from the Oncoming Storm. 

“Didn't take you for one to think, Captain. Nice to know you do,” The brown coated man stated, coming to stand beside him and gaze out across the landscape. “Lovely view...I can see why you like it up here. Can’t say it’s surprising, though. You always did love dangerous places.” The man almost smiled. Almost. 

Jack only nodded, feeling the man beside him shift his gaze to the side, looking him up and down with eyes that had seen far too much over far too few years. Jack remembered he had probably looked that way, once. But that was many years ago, thousands of them, and he had stopped bothering to count them just as long ago as well. Years had little meaning when you never looked any older. Being a fixed point did that to a man, after all. 

“Not very talkative, are we? First for that.” 

“Last time I checked, you didn't like it when I talked too much. Always thought I was flirting. How long has it been for you, now? A couple days? Few years? A lifetime?” Jack muttered, tearing his gaze away from the beautiful nighttime view to look at the man beside him. No, not the man. The alien. 

“It’s been what feels like a lifetime. Then again, it always feels like a lifetime. How’s the team?” The man questioned, looking at the other with those ever smart, inquiring eyes. Even now, so many years after the last he’d seen him, those eyes still took Jack’s breath away.

“They’re doing fine...” Jack mumbled, suddenly feeling very, very childish in the presence of this wondrous being. He knew full well that this reaction was normal, that those deep, brown eyes were what drew so many companions in, no matter the danger. Perhaps that’s what Jack had loved so much. The constant notion that, despite any sort of danger, he would always be able to come back. The perfect companion to the man who had since taken to traveling alone. At least, he wished he were. Long ago he’d found out he wasn't welcome.

“Good. Very good. They’re doing a bang up job of keeping Cardiff safe, you know. I have been watching...even though I never intervene.” Those words struck some sort of chord within Jack, some sorrowful note that began to build, vibrating inside his chest and rattling like an angry caged animal. 

“Why are you here? Why now, of all times? At two in the morning, creeping up on me like some sort of bad karma on top of a skyscraper?” Jack asked, suddenly feeling very cold in his old RAF coat. The wool did very little to shield him against the icy dread building up in him. The dread of being taunted with this wonderful, adventurous man, and all the things that he’d longed to have for so many centuries, and then having it torn away. He’d built up walls for this reason. But the man in the brown coat and pinstripe suit could break those walls without even looking at him. And perhaps that was the thing he hated about him.

“I came to ask you something, actually, Captain.” Now that was a surprise. The man who new everything was asking the man he couldn't stand some sort of question. 

“I’m listening then...” Jack said, looking to the alien at his side. His eyes, stormy as ever, were glassy. His defenses were down, that much was obvious. Maybe the other sensed this, because his voice suddenly took on a soft tone, tickling against the captain’s ears as gently as the drizzle pattering on his coat. 

“I came to ask if you would reconsider...” The man whispered, looking as though the words were hard to say. Not in a bad way, no. Not how they would have been so long ago, but more...afraid. He was afraid of asking, afraid of sounding vulnerable. The Oncoming Storm wasn't supposed to sound so afraid. 

Jack didn't know what happened first, as everything was a blur. What he could recognize, though not in any conceivable order, was his hand latching to the other’s, fingers tangling and smiles being exchanged. Sound escaped him. Sound escaped the other man. What he could hear, and would forever hear when he thought of returning to the blue box, was the patter patter of trainers and boots in the rooftop puddles and the ever steady drizzle of rain. 

And, soon after, the distinct sound of the TARDIS dematerializing filled the early morning, and the Torchwood team would all wake to the same message on their phones. 

‘I found my Doctor. -J.H’


End file.
